


Eight Hours

by Phineasflynns



Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, Horatio gets shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-27 00:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phineasflynns/pseuds/Phineasflynns
Summary: Horatio gets shot on the job, leaving Calleigh in charge of leading their team in their admission to find his shooter and bust the criminals he was after.





	Eight Hours

Horatio groans in the back of his throat, a heavy and pained breath escaping him as he drops to his knees. Impact that previously wouldn’t have bothered him sends pain shooting up his legs, and he grunts again. His hand drops, shaking fingertips touching his bullet wound, lifting back painted with deep red.

His body sags to the ground, a soft wheezing noise escaping him, and his head falls to rest upon his arm while his other one reaches for his phone. He flicks it open and manages to force his trembling hand to dial the number he knows by heart, and after a moment it’s ringing. A soft, pained breath escapes, and he closes his eyes, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear away the black closing in on him.

“Hey, handsome.” Calleigh’s soft voice sounds through the phone after three rings. “Where are you, we’re all ready to go.”

“Calleigh.” He grits out, and her tone immediately changes to one of urgency.

“Horatio? Are you okay?”

Another strained noise escapes him and he coughs softly, sucking in a ragged inhale so he can answer her. Before he can force himself to speak, her voice sounds again.

“Horatio!?” He hears Ryan, Eric and Natalia in the background asking if everything is okay, and then he hears the sharp click of heels to indicate she’s running. “He’s hurt!” Her voice sounds away from the phone, and he can hear the rest of the team scrambling toward vehicles. “Horatio where are you?!” She demands.

He hears the door of her Hummer slam shut and the familiar roar of the engine. Tires screech as she pulls out, and he hears her sirens click on. He forgets what she had asked, eyes slipping shut once more.

“Horatio!” She repeats, voice strained, and his eyes shoot open again. “Tell me where you are!”

Where is he? His gaze flicks around slightly, trying to refresh his memory.

“The pier.” He answers after a moment.

“Oh Jesus Christ- don’t scare me like that!” She admonishes, and distantly he hears the engine of the Hummer roar through the phone.

“Drive safe.” He mumbles.

“I’ll be there soon.” She says instead.

“Calleigh?” He tries gently, and there’s silence for a fraction of a second.

“Yeah?” She whispers.

He doesn’t answer.

“Horatio?” She asks when a minute ticks by and he hasn’t replied. “Horatio!”

She reaches the pier two minutes later, and at the sigh of blood she leaps out her car, phone in her belt, still connected to Horatio’s, and gun in her hands. Her steps are quick and sloppy, but deep down she knows he wouldn’t have called if she was in danger.

The thick drops of blood lead her between some crates, and she swallows the sick feeling in her stomach.

“Horatio?” She asks softly, and she stiffens when she hears her voice echo back through a different phone.

She turns, and lying a few feet away in a pool of blood is Horatio. She feels like a rug has been yanked from beneath her feet, but before panic can sink it’s claws into her she takes off running toward her boss.

She drops to her knees next to him and her hand flies to his throat, fingertips pressing into his smooth and slightly cooled skin, relieved tears springing to her eyes when she finds a weak pulse.

“Calleigh, is he- oh my god.” Eric draws her attention, and she whips her head around to face him.

“Call for an ambulance, he has a pulse but it’s fading!” She orders, and he immediately nods.

“This is Delko with the Miami-“ He trails off as he runs back toward Ryan and Natalia, intercepting them both and keeping them back.

“Call Alex!” Calleigh cries over to them, and out of the corner of her eye she sees Ryan rip out of his phone and lift it to his ear.

Natalia is pacing, phone in one hand her hair in the other, no doubt calling Yelina or Tripp. Calleigh watches them for a fraction of a second, and then turns back to Horatio, her hand finding his cheek so she can turn his head slightly.

“Horatio? Can you hear me?” She whispers, but there’s no answer.

She expected as much.

She reaches out and grasps his phone, closing it and tucking it into her pocket before settling back at his side, fingers remaining against his throat to monitor his pulse. It feels like hours before the ambulance shows up, but in reality it’s about ten minutes.

“Ma’am, we need you to move so we can-“

“Yes, of course.” She immediately moves away, swallowing her emotion so she can try to be of assistance. “He still has a pulse, I monitored it while we waited. His only injury is a gunshot wound to his lower right abdomen.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

They bustle past her, and Eric is the one to come snap her out of her silent vigil a few feet from Horatio’s body.

“Cal, you okay?”

“I..” She takes a moment to think about it and turns to face him, offering an obviously fake smile. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Calleigh, I’ve known you for years. You think I don’t know when you’re lying?”

She’s silent for a moment, unsure if she should mention their relationship; there’s so many department rules against it that she knows she shouldn’t, but she knows she can trust Eric.

“We-“ She chokes on the word and turns her gaze toward the sky, blinking back tears and clearing her throat. “We’re together.” She manages to say, voice scarcely a whisper.

“We thought so.” Eric murmurs in reply. His hand lifts and he gently squeezes her arm. “He’ll be okay.”

“There’s a lot of blood, Eric.”

“We’re going to find who did this.” He promises. “And we’re going to make them pay. H will be here to take them down with us, he’s tough.”

She manages a slightly more sincere smile.

“I know.”

“Ma’am, we’ve stabilized him, are you coming with us?” A paramedic asks, and she’s nodding before she has even turned around.

“Yes.” She says, shooting a glance over her shoulder at Eric before slipping away, climbing up into the back of the ambulance.

She takes a seat on the bench before Horatio’s gurney, and her hand finds his to gently squeeze it. Her heart twists when he doesn’t squeeze it back.

She hears someone -probably Eric or Ryan- smack the back of the ambulance to signal it’s clear to move, and then her attention refocuses on the redhead lying immobile in front of her.

~~~~~

“Duquesne.” She answers, lifting the phone to her ear automatically without even checking the caller ID.

“Cal, we’ve got a lead. Someone called Tripp and said they saw a red 2014 Ford hatchback fleeing the scene, the time they gave puts it at the scene about ten minutes before H called you.” Ryan informs her, and she feels her free hand clench into a fist.

“Any location?”

“Eric and Natalia are on it now, built in GPS lead us to it; it’s in a parking garage four blocks away.”

“Good, keep me posted.”

She hangs up the phone and turns back to the operating room doors, peeking through the glass and letting out a soft sigh, nerves frayed.

She jumps when her phone rings again, and she lifts it once more.

“Duquesne.”

“Calleigh?”

Her eyes widen in horror at the voice she hears.

“Kyle?”

“Is my dad okay? I saw on the news that he was shot.”

“He’s still in surgery.” She replies honestly, heart twisting at the obvious anxiety in his voice.

“You’re going to catch this guy, right?”

“Of course. I’ll keep you posted.” She says softly, and she hears him let out a faint sigh.

“Thank you, Calleigh.”

She discards her phone once more and anxiously peeks through the window into the OR yet again. Seeing no change, she makes a vague noise of frustration.

“God, Horatio come on.” She murmurs.

~~~~~

“Calleigh?” A soft voice asks, and Calleigh jerks out of her troubled sleep. Her gaze falls upon Alexx, and she relaxes slightly.

“Alexx.” She greets. “Any news?”

“We patched him up, but he hasn’t woken up yet. He lost a lot of blood, baby, it’s going to take a little while for him to wake up.”

“How long?” She asks immediately.

Alexx shrugs.

“I can’t say for sure, but he’s going to be out for at least the next.. 8 hours, I’d say.” Her hand touches Calleigh’s gently. “Go get this guy, baby.”

“You said 8 hours?” She murmurs, and Alexx nods. “I’ll be back in 7.”

~~~~~~

“What have we got?” She asks, barging into the lab and earning surprised looks from Walter and Natalia.

“Calleigh, we thought you’d stay with H.”

“Damn, Cal you’re covered in blood.”

She glances down and then back up quickly.

“What have we got?” She repeats.

“We found blood in the car; we think H got one shot off before this guy took off. We can’t confirm though; we can’t find his gun. Eric and Ryan are back at the scene to look for it.”

“Do we have an ID?”

“We will any minute.” She turns the screen to face the blonde, and as she does the computer beeps and pops up a picture of a middle aged Caucasian male.

“Trevor Andraunda.” She reads, glancing back to Natalia. “Call Tripp, I want this guy in here yesterday.”

“On it.”

Her phone rings at that moment and she lifts it to her ear habitually.

“Duquesne.”

“Cal, we found H’s gun. We’re right, it’s missing a round.”

“Good. We got an ID, we’re looking for Trevor Andraunda. Call hospitals and see if they’ve heard anything.”

“On it.”

~~~~~~

Calleigh glances at her watch. Five hours left. She looks up at Frank as he walks over, and he purses his lips.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Cal? I’m sure someone else would do it for you.”

“I’m sure Frank, but thank you.” She smiles genuinely and slips away. He watches in silence as she walks into the room, throwing a file down on the table as she takes a seat.

“Let’s hope she doesn’t kill him.” Eric murmurs.

“So. Trevor Andraunda.”

“Yeah?”

She eyes the blonde man across from her, her lips set into a grimace, and at his look of annoyance her own temper flares.

“I’m going to cut to the chase; we found your blood in a car caught fleeing the scene of an attempted murder.”

She takes a picture out of the folder, showing the red Ford they had confiscated earlier, and sets it on the table in front of him. Following is photos of the blood inside the car.

“That’s not my car!”

“Oh? That’s funny, because we ran the plates and they’re registered to your name.” She pulls out another photo, showing the DMV records for the vehicle. “Want to try again?”

“Listen, I didn’t shoot no cop-“

“I didn’t say it was a cop.” She interrupts.

“What?”

“I didn’t say it was a cop.” She repeats slowly. “So here’s what we’re going to do; you’re going to tell me why you shot Lieutenant Caine, and then you’re going to go to jail for a very long time.”

“I want my lawyer.”

Calleigh leaps to her feet and slams her palm against the table, free hand shooting across the surface to grab the collar of his shirt. Before he can react he’s hauled out of his chair, their faces mere inches apart.

Eric moves to go in and intervene, but Frank grabs his shoulder and mutters for him to wait.

“Listen here, you slime ball!” She growls. “We have your DNA and your fingerprints in the car, witnesses to place you and your car at the scene, and I’d be willing to bet my paycheque that if I lifted up your shirt you’d have a bullet wound.” She drops him back into his chair but remains standing, towering over him.

He cries out in pain, staring up at her, fear in his eyes.

“Start talking.”

“.. He was going to bust us. He got too close, and I was told to shoot him.”

“Told by who?”

“I don’t know his name! But they’re all meeting down there at 6 tonight.”

“You’d better not be lying to me.” She turns and stalks toward the door. “Book him.” She tells the cop standing outside the door.

~~~~~~~

“Delko.”

“Eric, it’s Calleigh. Trevor says the group he’s with is meeting up again tonight at 6.”

“Any word on what they’re doing?”

“He wouldn’t budge, but from his attitude I’m thinking something big; he said Horatio got too close to finding them so he was ordered to shoot him.”

“Do you want Ryan and I to go down there?”

“Yes, and take Walter and Natalia. I don’t want anyone else getting shot today.”

“On it.”

She hangs up and then glances down at her shirt, which is still thoroughly coated in Horatio’s blood. Maybe it’s time for a shower. She glances at her watch. Four hours left.

As she makes her way out of the building, she calls Kyle.

“Calleigh, any news?” He asks, and she nods despite knowing he can’t see her.

“We got the guy that shot him.”

“Good.” He says firmly, and she can’t help but to agree. “Is he going to jail?”

“Yeah. He’s going away for a long time.”

“Any news on my dad?”

“Nothing yet. Still a few hours before the drugs wear off and he wakes up, but I’ll call you if anything changes.”

“Thanks Calleigh.”

~~~~~~

When she walks into her house she feels almost guilty: so many of Horatio’s possessions are littered throughout her house that it’s a painful reminder of his condition to even just walk through the door.

She determinedly ignores what she can of the surroundings and goes straight to her bathroom where she strips off her blood soaked clothes and tosses them in the garbage. Nudity reveals that his blood has seeped through her clothes and stained her skin, and that realization turns her stomach.

Determinedly forcing herself not to have a crisis she starts up the shower and steps in. She loses herself briefly under the hot water, allowing it to relax her tense muscles and wash away the evidence of Horatio’s injury.

When she finally steps out, it’s 6:30. She keeps an eye on her phone as she towels dry and redresses, this time in an emerald green top. She tells herself it’s not because Horatio previously said it was his favourite on her.

She takes the time to dry her hair, knowing she can’t do anything until her team is done apprehending the gang she sent them after, and by the time she finishes it’s 7 o’clock and her phone is ringing.

“Duquesne.”

“We got them. They were smuggling cocaine into the country; had crates full of it in that warehouse. Tripp and a few other officers took the gang to booking, they’re all going down.” Eric tells her, and the information makes her feel a tiny bit better.

“Good.”

“Trevor lawyered up, but Ryan spoke to a judge and he says our case is solid, he’s going to be put in jail until his trial and likely sent back.”

“That’s what I like to hear, good job boys.” She grins genuinely, and Eric chuckles.

“Any news?”

“None so far. Still a couple hours left in the timeframe Alexx gave me. I came home to change my clothes and wash the blood off.”

“He lost that much?”

“Yeah.” She pauses for a moment. “Kyle called me, too.”

“Is he okay?”

“He’s upset. I think he’s going to come home, though.”

“H will love that, it’s been years.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“We’ll keep you posted if anything changes, call us when he wakes up.”

“Will do.”

~~~~~~~

“Relax, baby, pacing isn’t going to make him wake up any faster.” Alexx murmurs affectionately to Calleigh as the distraught blonde paces anxiously around the room.

“The drugs have worn off.” Calleigh protests, and Alexx nods.

“They have, but he lost /a lot/ of blood, Calleigh. It’s a miracle he even lived, especially at his age.”

Calleigh’s face pales slightly and she shoots Alexx a sour look, knowing the M.E. wont take offence.

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

“You know he’s going to be okay.” Alexx assures her. “We stopped the bleeding in time.”

Calleigh nods and lets out a sigh.

“I know. I’m just worried.”

“I am too, baby.”

~~~~~~~

When Horatio wakes it takes him a few seconds to process his location. When he finally recognizes that he’s in a hospital, his gaze flicks over to the glowing screen displaying his vitals. Seeing that they’re steady -for the most part- he turns his attention across the room to a clock. 1:53am. He sighs softly, and only then does he realize he can feel something in his lap.

His gaze turns downwards, and his heart warms in his chest at the sight of Calleigh, fast asleep with her head and hand on his thigh, her other hand grasping his own. Oh. He hadn’t even noticed that. He smiles.

“Calleigh.” He whispers, lifting his free hand to gently stroke her hair. “Calleigh, honey.” He calls again when she doesn’t react. At the second call she stirs slightly, and he laughs softly and affectionately. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Good morning handsome.” She mumbles back.

There’s a beat of silence, and then she sits up so abruptly that if he didn’t know her so well he surely would’ve been startled.

“Horatio!”

“That’s my name.” He smiles, tilting his head slightly.

She reaches for him immediately, slipping her arms carefully around him, and his arms gently wrap around her waist as much as they can with the various tubes and wires connected to him.

“God, I’m so glad you’re okay.” She breathes, and he chuckles.

“It takes more than a bullet to keep me down.”

She snorts at him but sits back slightly, and for the first time since he got shot she lets the tears slip down her cheeks, even though she’s smiling the widest she has all day.

“Sweetheart?” He prompts gently, reaching up to wipe away her tears, and she lets out a laugh that sounds like more of a sob than anything.

“I- Horatio I was so worried.” She admits, and he carefully guides her back down into his arms.

“Hey, I’m okay. I’m here.” He soothes softly. “I love you Cal, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I love you too, handsome.” She murmurs.

~~~~~~~

When Alexx comes in the next morning they’re tangled up together in the sheets, arms around each other as if they can’t stand to be apart, and Alexx is one of the few who knows how true that is. Horatio has his arm wrapped around her waist, keeping their chests pressed together, and the hand laden with wires and tubes is dangling off the side of the bed.

Their legs are tangled together, sheets caught in a mess of limbs, and Calleigh’s head is carefully tucked under his chin, her face pressed into his chest. She inhales deeply and smiles in her sleep, and Alexx snaps a quick picture.

“I assume you came here for something other than your newfound career as a CSI paparazzi?” Horatio teases when the woman pockets her phone, and Alexx giggles as she walks over.

“Oh hush, you. It’s time for your pain meds.”

“Thank you, Alexx.”

“It’s good to see you, though I wish you would visit under less dire circumstances.” She grumps as she prepares the various medicines she needs to insert into the IV.

“You work more than I do, Alexx. Dire circumstances are the only time we have.”

She scoffs but is smiling, despite the slightly disheartening truth to his words, and makes quick work of the painkillers and meds.

“Do you want me to call the team?” She offers, and he shakes his head.

“No, give me a few more hours with Calleigh before we open up the floodgates.”

“Yes sir.” She winks and slips out the door.

“I like the sound of that.” Calleigh pipes up softly, and Horatio chuckles fondly.

“I thought you might.” He leans forward to gently press their lips together, and she smiles when they part, gaze tracing over the lines in Horatio’s face, drifting up to his now closed eyes.

“We should really call Kyle and tell him that you’ve woken up.”

“But I haven’t. My eyes are closed, see?”

“Lieutenant Caine, is that a lie I hear?”

“It’s only a lie, Miss Duquesne, if you point it out.”

She snorts out a giggle but snuggles closer and nods her head, eyes fluttering shut as well.

“Fair enough.”


End file.
